Before the Internet, the typical method to pay a bill from a business was to go to the physical location of the business and pay the bill, call the business to pay the bill, or mail the payment to the business. Since the proliferation of the Internet, many businesses (e.g., Energy companies, Cable companies, Internet Service Providers, Credit Card companies, etc.) now offer customers the ability to pay the bill via the Internet. Customers may use different methods to pay their bills.
One method for a customer to pay their bill is for the customer to use an online account maintained by the business. Specifically, the customer may login to their the business maintained online account, submit credit or debit card information to the business maintained online account, and authorize the business to debit the account associated with the credit or debit card. Using this method, the customer remembers the login information for each online account of the different business with whom the customer transacts.
Rather than using the online account of the business, a customer may access their online account maintained by their financial institution. To pay a bill using the customer's online account maintained by their financial institution, the customer submits payment information including typing in the account number of the customer's account with the business. The financial institution then transfers the amount to the business with the account number of the customer's account with the business.
Some businesses may send out reminders to their customers when a bill is due. The reminder may be in the form of an email notification to the customer's email account. In general, the email only includes basic information about the bill.